Further Reading

Have you been to see Hobbs and Shaw yet? It's the latest installment from the Fast and Furious franchise, a spinoff starring Vanessa Kirby, Jason Statham, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Idris Elba, and it's pretty darn good as far as mindless summer action flicks go. Now, I know what you're thinking: he only really likes it because it's got some cool cars. But here's a secret—I'm far more in love with the way everyone is dressed in the movie.

Much of the credit for that goes to Sarah Evelyn, the film's costume designer. But there's another influence at work in the wardrobe department, that of techwear luminary Errolson Hugh. Hugh has been called "your favorite designer's favorite designer," although more recently you might know him from having started that bottle cap challenge earlier this summer.

It's fair to say Hugh's attitude toward design, particularly with his label, Acronym, is uncompromising. In fact, it reminds me a lot of Gordon Murray's approach to designing the McLaren F1. Like Murray, Hugh's work is heavy with the latest technology—it is called "techwear," after all. But instead of ultra lightweight composites (the McLaren F1 was the first production road car to be made completely from carbon fiber), it uses cutting-edge fabrics from companies like Schoeller, Gore, and Nextec.

Further Reading

Of course, it's more than just clever textiles—after all, you can use those and still make clothes that let you blend in; you know, normal-looking stuff. About the only place you'll blend in wearing head-to-toe Acronym might be at a conference for space ninjas from the future, which is probably what drew Evelyn to his work. But we're not talking cosplay outfits here—form follows function, and every detail has a reason behind it. A keen martial artist, Hugh often credits his first karate gi as the inspiration for his pattern designs that restrict your movement as little as possible, as demonstrated in a series of "Acronymjutsu" videos that are the closest the cryptic brand ever gets to advertising.

I had an inkling that Acronym was going to feature in Hobbs and Shaw when the first trailer showed our eponymous heroes wearing jumpsuits. These featured a rather distinctive style of pocket, almost identical to the ones you find on a pair of Acronym P24A pants. (All of Acronym's designs have alphanumeric designations rather than names.) And although a big-budget action movie was the last place I expected to see the label show up, it wasn't that far-fetched. Statham is a high-profile fan, along with William Gibson, John Mayer, and the late Robin Williams (yes, really).

Hobbs and Shaw, along with Shaw's sister, get their wardrobe upgrade after visiting Madam M, a Russian friend of Shaw's who helps the trio in their plan to break into the bad guys' HQ. First, there are those custom jumpsuits; once on the ground our heroes stick with the techwear vibe. After all, who doesn't want to look like a space ninja? In fact, the techwear look extends to the assorted evil scientists and muscle working for the evil Eteon group, although Idris Elba's transhuman villain Brixton owes a lot more to motocross.

I had to know for sure, so I reached out to the Berlin-based designer. Here's what he told me:

"The whole thing happened because Jason walked into wardrobe one day and was like ‘"Oh I know that guy." We were on the mood boards for a lot of the stuff. But they were motivated and were really keen to get us to do the main outfits for Jason and Dwayne. The whole thing was super smooth. We sent patterns and materials and they built all the iterations. They needed 15 of each in like five weeks. I have no idea how they pulled it off."

Statham's ensemble was almost strictly off the shelf. "Statham rocked stock P10As and a J73 with an arm patch! Looked great and fit perfectly," Hugh told me. It probably helped that the actor already knew his size; for his substantial costar they had to get a bit more creative. That black vest is one Hugh designed for Stone Island's Shadow Project collection, modified to fit The Rock. "Dwayne’s vest was a rebuild—we only had medium—and his pants were refitted extra-large P24As," he said.

Further Reading

As techwear devotees will already know, wearing a lot of black water-resistant fabric works pretty well when it's cold and wet outside, but less so when the climate gets tropical. So it's not really a surprise that by the time our film reaches its conclusion in Samoa our heroes are back in more normal outfits. But that's OK—not every car in the film can be a McLaren 720S, either.

Let's just say that I hadn't seen it, and I said to you, "I haven't been to see Hobbs and Shaw yet."

What would you think, would I definitely go?

It’s about as good as one could expect such a movie to be, IMHO. The action was good. The girl is really cute (and she kicks ass, also, so isn’t one of those helpless female roles). There’s some good jokes and banter between Statham and Johnson. Elba’s role is a little less 2-dimensional than such villains often are.

But it’s still just sort of a vapid action movie, so don’t expect too much.

While I have no issue with the content of the article, count me as one vote for an additional article that covers some of the tech associated with these fabrics.

Above*, I mentioned rotting sweat smell resistant clothing.I hadn't thought of the bullet proof consumer wear industry. I've never seen any mention of tests of bullet proof children's backpacks, or the bullet proof men's (suits?), though I do recall the cute statement from one seller: "[If you die, 100% moneyback guarantee.]" Was no mention on if dead person had to sign the paperwork.edit clarity: *above in the comments, earlier page, to OP.

I understand functional tech outerwear for sports, where there's an actual function you're chasing. My Arc'teryx bib pants (precursor to the Theta SK) are hands-down the greatest piece of ski gear I own. Light, flexible, perfect articulation in the knee joint thanks to complex fabric cutting, waterproof (until you're sitting on melting slush on a chairlift), bomb-proof zippers you can operate with frozen fingers, a thin elasticated velcro cuff that fits over a ski boot without binding yet works flawlessly. All of this can and is copied by other gear makers, but the Canadian-made quality is sensational and my pair are going great after 20 years.

I'm happy Arc'teryx took the same attention to detail and applied it to the separate Veilance men's clothing line. Most sports outerwear companies that began aiming for perfect high-end function sell out and start making sportswear that's just leisure clothing for people who want to look like a top athlete, and then lose the reputation for excellence (I'm looking at you Descente and Spyder). But it's unclear what the function is, exactly, for leisure clothes. You're just knocking around in pants, shirt, and a jacket: the way the sleeve flexes is not going to boost your performance, so spending $1,500 on a Field IS jacket is mostly tangential to function. Taswyn nailed it:

And that's fine for people who value a specific design aesthetic that much and can afford it, or are trying to make a certain recognizable posturing gesture to peers, or think a particular designer's approach has something that sets them apart in how they select and place materials in their work.

Supposedly you can actually do martial arts in Hugh Errolson's Acronym gear, but that's just peddling a fantasy of tactical urban ninja-tude (William Gibson is 71 years old!). Which is fine if you view clothes as fantasy; why should only women enjoy the delirious make-believe fun of haute couture? I just wish Veilance and Acronym were more beautiful to look at, as much women's clothing is; since clothes for wandering around don't need to do much more than look good, every day you're wearing boring clothes is a lost opportunity to present textile modern art to the world.

While I have no issue with the content of the article, count me as one vote for an additional article that covers some of the tech associated with these fabrics.

I've been reticent of spending too much time on an in-depth piece about techwear and some of the cool textile science that's going on, because I wasn't convinced there was enough of an audience to justify the effort that would require. But since there seems to be some appetite to read about it, I will put it on the list.

Badass is definitely not how I will qualify them... but I will keep quiet

They look pretty much like regular Japanese urbanwear,... if you trot along to AliExpress and search for combat trousers, you'll find many and various very similar garments,... just retailing for ~$30 a pair. OK, those aren't going to be 'technical' fabrics, but then I doubt anyone who drops $1200 for a pair of Acronym pants is going to get sweaty in them, and test their performance.